Archive | 2014

Northern Thailand and Northeastern Thailand (Isan) Are Two Different Regions

By on November 14, 2014 in She Rants and Muses, Uncategorized

Northern and Northeastern Thailand
There’s the north of Thailand. Then there’s the northeast of Thailand.* The northeast is also known as isan, the term that never applies to the north. The two regions are separate and distinct in terms of food, dialect, culture, and geography. The Thai people don’t think of isan as part of “the north of Thailand.”

This is old news to most people. However, based on what I’ve seen in various publications, it appears quite a few are still confused. So I hope this brief post will be useful to those who write about Thai food and/or Thai restaurants who perhaps didn’t know this before.
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* Different organizations employ different divisional schemes. What you see here is based on the one proposed by the Royal Institute and approved by the Thai government in 1977.

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African Chicken (Galinha à Africana) in the style of Henri’s Galley

By on November 3, 2014 in She Bakes, She Braises, She Deglutenizes, She Explores, She Roasts, She Simmers, Uncategorized

Galinha à Africana (African Chicken) in the style of Henri's Galley
I had a chance to visit Macau for the first time as an adult this past summer. After the first few hours there, I realized I should have planned a longer stay. I ate as well and variedly as I could, but even so I barely scratched the surface in terms of what this place has to offer. There is so much to see, experience, and eat there.

One of the places that everyone had told me to visit is Henri’s Galley, a little old-school restaurant that serves traditional Macanese dishes. It’s a little out of the way, they said, but it’s good. And, oh, they added, you gotta have the African chicken, the restaurant’s flagship dish. Continue Reading →

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Mon Dipping Sauce (น้ำปลามอญ) by Ong Bunjoon

By on September 28, 2014 in She Deglutenizes, She Drizzles and Smears, She Interviews, She Thais, She Uncooks, She Veges

Mon Dipping Sauce
I recently fell in love with a book. I’m still head over heels as I’m typing this sentence.

Long story short, I popped into a Kinokuniya during a quick layover in Bangkok early this summer in hopes of finding something tiny but texty and thrilling* to read on the 4-hour plane ride I’d catch later that evening. No more than 5 minutes later, I walked out with a copy of Khang Samrap Mon (ข้างสำรับมอญ)**, a pocketbook — still shrink-wrapped — with nothing that appealed to me on a quick glance other than the title and the author’s vaguely familiar name.

Not only was the book devoured in one sitting as planned, it was also constantly by my side as I was hopping from place to place in East and Southeast Asia in the following 3 months. All sorts of brutal acts like double- and triple-underlining, highlighting, dog-earing, excessive exclamation pointing, and ranty, monologic marginal-notating had been committed by me against the poor book. But in the process, I had learned so much about the culture and food of the ethnic Mon in Thailand. Continue Reading →

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